Football. Five people under house arrest for illegal gambling, betting and money laundering

The Milan financial police have arrested the five main suspects in the investigation by the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office involving around twenty Serie A footballers and athletes, including Nicolò Zaniolo and Sandro Tonali, believed to be the "collectors" of the bets, for a betting ring on illegal gaming platforms.

After the preventive interrogations of last April 17, the investigating judge Lidia Castellucci accepted the request of the prosecutors Paolo Filippini and Roberta Amadeo and ordered the house arrest of Tommaso De Giacomo , Patrick Frizzera , Antonio Scinocca , Antonino Parise and Andrea Piccini on suspicion of illegally exercising gambling, betting and money laundering activities as managers of the illegal platforms Betsport22.com, Swapbet365.eu, Vipsport360.com - Texinho.com.

The suspects had already been the recipients on April 11 of “a search warrant and a precautionary seizure warrant” for over 1.5 million “with a lien of 929,742.60 euros on financial relationships, 104,085 euros in cash and six real estate units (with an overall estimated value of 499,925.40 euros)” and “of a further 240,500 euros in cash” found at the “ Elysium ” jewelry store in Milan. In particular, the latter was considered the “laundering machine” of the illicit money through “fake sales of watches and luxury goods that were never delivered”. In particular, Scinocca and Parise, legal representative and partner, and Piccini, former partner, allegedly simulated “the sale” of “watches or valuables, sometimes in exchange for the formal issuing of invoices” and “received bank transfers into current accounts” “to cover the debts incurred by the players”, thus laundering the money from the footballers’ bets.

Tonali, Bellanova, Beans, Di Maria, Zaniolo, McKennie (Rainews.it)

Furthermore, “a consolidated and structured system for the payment of gambling debts was identified, which made use of front men and financial instruments such as PostePay cards, Revolut accounts and bank current accounts”. In addition, “some gamblers, incentivised by bonuses or discounts on accumulated debts, actively promoted illegal platforms”. Among these, for example, as alleged “collectors”, as had already emerged, Fagioli and Tonali. Among the other footballers involved are Alessandro Florenzi , Mattia Perin , Weston McKennie , Ángel Di María , Nicolò Zaniolo , Raoul Bellanova and Samuele Ricci .